Courtney Crawford - Actor

[courtneyactor]

Evaluation for Acting for Acting!

This process has been totally different to what we have done at the Miskin. It been different in two ways, this process has been stripping our acting back,  as we have been told since the beginning to be bigger, and to project and perform to the audience – now because our unit was Acting for Camera, acting for camera is much more naturalistic and comparing it to theatre acting you feel like your doing nothing. And that is pretty much the massive difference between theatre acting and camera acting you feel like you are doing nothing. The other difference is that we had a smaller company, and we were only girls. I have learnt so much over the past couple of weeks like commercial acting, storyboarding, the formula and it was really useful to learn and experience it. I loved learning all the different techniques, as it made it easier to understand how to do acting for camera.

 The split was done in the middle of the process, and I didn’t know if it was going to make the company better or worse. Initially we were all quite disheartened, but we didn’t realise how well we all got along. I honestly think we wouldn’t of got as much done as we did if we was with our whole company and I enjoyed the workshops, and it did help me to be more comfortable talking in discussions.

The end result of the film we’re better than expected, I didn’t have a clue how the films were going to look. I wished we spent more time on developing the films, like the scripts and the plot as we could have made my groups film, The Girl Next Dorm, I would of liked it to have more grit to it. As for The Object, although the films didn’t have time to edit the rushes, I would have liked to see the end result because watching it made me want to see what us as the audience would of felt watching the end scene.

 All in all this was one of the best process I had as I wasn’t so stressed as much as I was much more relaxed, and also I just laughed loads plus there was no arguments. We all got along, and help each other which made the process so nice for everyone and it was sad it came to an end. I would of loved to have more time on this process because of how much I enjoyed it but all good things must come to an end, and we ended in in a very strong position.

[courtneyactor]

9th March - Pitches

In our groups we worked  on the proposals for our short films, and made final decisions about our plot, and we actually had so many good ideas for this film and I was so excited to tell the rest of the company – but the sad thing was only two of the films will be filmed. Our film was called JULIA?

 JULIA?

 Ø  4 Questions

1.     Who is the main character? Darcie Rogers

2.     What are they trying to accomplish? She’s trying to fight her problems

3.     Who is trying to stop them? Her Schizophrenia

4.     What happens if they fail? She will end up in a Mental Institution  

  Ø  4 Archetypes

1.     How is the main character an orphan? 

When Julia leaves her

2.     How is the main character a wonder? 

When Darcie discovers Julia is not  real

3.     How is the main character a warrior? 

When Darcie’s argues with Julia

4.     How is the main character a martyr? 

Julia is Darcie’s sacrifice, when she has to let go of her.

  Ø  Putting it all together

Darcie Rogers is a teenage girl, fighting her problems with her best friend Julia by her side. When Julia is taken away from her, Darcie’s world comes crashing down.

  Characters:

 Darcie: Main character, 17 years old, schizophrenic, good network of supportive friends, quiet bubbly and happy despite her illness.

 Julia: Main character, Darcie’s illusion, starts off nice but it starts going wrong, always been by Darcie’s side.

 Louise: Darcie Friend, generally supportive, really pretty friend of the group, loves gossip. Can’t see Julia.

 Lucy: Darcie Friend, Quiet but speaks when necessary. Can’t see Julia.

 Scenes: 

Scene 1: “Where is Julia?”

Darcie is in hysterics after an argument with Julia. Location: Toilets.

Scene 2: “it’s a Girl?”

Darcie’s mum has had a baby girl, and is telling her friends. Location: Outside on a Bench

Scene 3: “Hurry up, were gonna be late!”

Julia and Darcie are talking in the toilets, whilst in the toilets a stranger comes in and think they are being addressed to. Location: Toilets.

Scene 4: “ Is she better than?”

Darcie talks to Julia about her new baby sister, Julia is getting Jealous. Location: Corridor

Scene 5: “I don’t need you”

Julia and Darcie are arguing about everything that has happened over the last couple of weeks – Julia ends up leaving Darcie. Location: Garden

Scene 6: “I do need you”

Julia has gone – Darcie is upset and annoyed from the argument and starts reminiscing of her and Julia’s memories. Darcie’s Friends confront her about Julia Location: Green Room.

Scene 7: “Who is Julia?”

Darcie looks at the photos and she double checks , but it is not the same as they once were. Location: Toilets

We got told after lunch which films were going to get the go ahead, and it was really tough because we all had developed these film really well and you could picture all of them being filmed. In the end the film “The girl next dorm” and “The Object” were picked to be filmed. I was put into the “The Girl Next Dorm” group, as our director thought our concept of Julia could be used in this film.  Personally I couldn’t get that many idea for “The Girl Next Dorm”, and were told to try and get passionate about the films we were put in but I couldn’t find passion for it just because it already seemed like the group who pitched it in the first place had it sorted, so I just went along with it and where I could I would suggest idea. By the end of the day we has altercated roles, and we had a structure so we could film next week.

[courtneyactor]

8th March - Commercial Casting

In the morning we had a huge discussion, it started off by showing our paintings we had found at the National Gallery. The discussion was “What is Beautiful”, it was really interesting to listen to peoples opinion on the topic, most people were saying like natural smile, and big eyes but also the that you could be stunning but your personality could be ugly and so your personality will over shine that, and it is the same if it’s the other way round if you not very pretty but your personality is amazing. After this we each gave a go at commercial casting, I didn’t know whether to be scared or not for this because we didn’t have to learn a script or be prepare anything we just had to be ready for anything. We were split into two groups and my group went first. For my commercial casting it was a new car commercial. In the casting I was told that I was on a bike (and I had not bike so I had to pretend) and I was going up and hill and I was out of breath and I saw a family who drove up quicker than me, and I was annoyed inside but I waved smiling. I found that with commercial casting you just have to be loose, and relaxed because they tell you want to do – personally I like that because I don’t panic as much. So I did prefer this to normal castings.  When we switched my group got to be the production team of the adverts! I actually enjoyed doing this because we could have different personalities for different people, and we could also make the actor do what we wanted them to.

[courtneyactor]

1st March - Pitching Ideas

Today we started to work on the pitches for our short film, our director asked who had an idea for pitch – I had been thinking about stories that we could possibly do. I did have two ideas, one was more to do with body image, and what the definition of perfect, but I decided to not use this idea as I couldn’t think how we have a storyline. My other idea which I did pitch was a psychological theme, I wanted the beginning of the film to be the where a disaster had happen, and when the film cuts you would go to a past time and throughout the film the audience would be trying to figure out what has happened. I used an example to help make it get understood as I pitched it because I was difficult to explain with out having a disaster. My example was girl going missing and you would would see the posters, and people panicking and trying to find her and then it would cut to 5 hours before she went missing, and in those 5 hours you would see her meeting loads of different people and we would constantly throw loads of different plot twist in.  When trying to explaining I was coming up with more and more ideas of what could happen – by the end of the pitching session I really liked it but I wasn’t going to use the disaster as missing as it is too common. Once that had come to and end the people who had pitched an idea were got into small groups that would work on the pitch with them people, to develop the idea further for Monday when we officially present them. We had some time together before the workshop had ended, in that time we had a structure, an idea of what will happen we hadn’t decided on a disaster but we had ideas of what it could be.

[courtneyactor]

1st March - Outing in London

Today we did something different, my company had been told in the previous week there was a masterclass in London, and we should all go – and so part of the deal was we had to go into either the National Gallery, or National Portrait Gallery and choose a piece of art that moves/ inspires us. I went to the National Gallery, I have never visited the gallery before, so I didn’t know what to expect. When looking around I wasn’t getting inspired that much, I couldn’t connect that much the only painting I took an interest in pictures that was of nature, or abstract. The photo I picked in the end was a panting called Summer by Hans Wertinger the reason why is inspires me is because it shows that back in that time every class would come together and help out doing summer activities, nowadays you wouldn’t get that, were all about all for one and one for all, in society I believe we have become selfish. You hardly have someone who is wealthy (high-classed) helping someone who is struggling for money.

[courtneyactor]

29th February- Storyboarding and Formula.

Today we learnt about the Structures and Storyboards of how to create script. Learning about this was very interesting, as I got understand how creators get a plot for a story. The point of the formulae is that any book, film, TV series has a plot, and you can put any plot in the formula. Also the storyboards was really interesting to learn about as you can see the vision that the director or creator had for there scene or advert.

 These two pictures are storyboards that we got given, and we had to write the camera shots that we think was used. We were quite lucky because we didn't get hugely difficult.

The Formula is the following:

 3 Steps

 Ø  4 Questions

1.     Who is the main character?

2.     What are they trying to accomplish?

3.     Who is trying to stop them?

4.     What happens if they fail?

 Ø  4 Archetypes

1.     How is the main character an orphan?

2.     How is the main character a wonder?

3.     How is the main character a warrior?

4.     How is the main character a martyr?

 Ø  Putting it all together

 We then got into small groups, in these small groups we had to come up with a story and make a storyboard and put out story into the formula. We got given a word and we had to create our story about that word, my groups word was ‘Alive’. Our idea was to have a disease that is transferred by touch, and that there’s only a couple of people left.

 Alive Formula

Ø  4 Questions

1.     Who is the main character? Sam Godak

2.     What are they trying to accomplish? To get rid of the disease

3.     Who is trying to stop them? Her Friends

4.     What happens if they fail? The disease will kill out the whole human race.

  Ø  4 Archetypes

1.     How is the main character an orphan? 

When she is diagnosed with the disease

2.     How is the main character a wonder? 

When she realises what the disease can do

3.     How is the main character a warrior? 

When she knows how to get rid of the disease.

4.     How is the main character a martyr? 

When she takes her own life to save everyone else.

 Ø  Putting it all together

 Sam Godak and her friends are running out of time before the whole of the human race will be swept away by a vicious disease spreading the nation. Will Sam be able to save the world when her friends abandon her?

 Using the formula, we had to create a pitch to present to other group. The formula helped piecing the plot together, and having a clear structure when we presented it. Majority of the groups you could see how they used the formula to help them to structure there story. For this task we had to take picture for our storyboard, this made the task more exciting and made us start thinking about different camera shots as well.

1:This is the three friends discovering that there other friend has got a deadly disease.

2: This shot is to let the audience know what has happened, and that the friend is really confused why this has happened

3: It shows that the hands are is where this deadly source is coming from - it is inside of her.

4: all the friends are watching  the news, which is telling them about the deadly disease.

5: The friends wants the disease to be gone, so wants to take her own life.

4: At the last minute her friend grabs the scissors, accidentally touching her hand and stops her.

5: The disease has been transferred into her friend, and it has a reaction to her body.

6: The friends don’t want to get the disease so they abandon there friend.

7: The friends run away from there former friend, and rush to safety.

7: she is reflecting on what has just happened, and is trying to process it all.

8: The friend have locked themselves in a safe place.

9: Katie sees the time is up, as the disease will stay in the human body for only a limited amount of time.

10. The friends receive a text from Katie saying “Bye”.

11. The friends rush to discover Katie had died.

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Part three of Scene 12 I have no clue why this chose to be so difficult to upload but it’s up now thank the Lord sorry for the wait